You Have Reached My Mind, Please Leave a Message | Big Questions Online: "In light of Clive Thompson's assertions that we are so over the telephone call, I'm reminded of a conversation with an older colleague about asynchronous communication. Basically he was overwhelmed with e-mails and I asked him if he felt the need to answer them right away. When he said that he did I suggested he turn off his alerts, given that that sort of interruption has been proven to make you as effective as if you were smoking pot (seriously). It hadn't even occurred to him that he could turn off his alerts. He suggested that perhaps it's a generational thing. As he grew up, the primary form of electronic communication was the telephone which requires immediate presence. And while voicemail allows for asynchronous phone conversations, there's still the lingering feeling that a ringing phone must be answered, especially if that's how you grew up. That same thinking applies to e-mail alerts, and here we are."
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